I know it’s not particularly likely, but…
Does anyone else here play hanafuda? My understanding is that they’re quite popular in Hawaii and Korea (although they’re out of fashion here in Japan). I’d be interested in learning what house rules and variants my fellow Dopers play.
For those who have no idea what I’m talking about :
http://hana.kirisame.org/
Go-Stop is indeed very popular here in Korea, especially among older men drinking soju. Some also call it Hwatu, but my wife seems to be saying that Hwatu is a larger group of games played with the same cards, while Go-Stop is the most commonly played of those games, at least in Korea. (Then again, I’m never perfectly sure what the heck she’s saying.)
Sorry, can’t help you with local variants. I play only once or twice a year, when I visit my in-laws. The rules I play by are simple: throw down a card that seems to fit, then give my father-in-law whatever amount of money he tells me I owe him. (We play for small stakes.) My wife laughs and promises to teach me the finer points later. Then we go home and forget all about it until the next holiday visit to the in-laws.
haha… I’m not sure what soju is, but it sounds a lot like shochu, the drink of choice of older Japanese men 
Hwatu is the name of the cards used, and Go-Stop is the most popular game played. The cards and games have so many names that I tried to fit as many as I could into the subject line.
I play Go-Stop with family and friends whenever there is drinking to be done. The rules are just complex enough that I know I’m going to twist myself into a pretzel trying to explain them.
It’s called Go-Stop because when one of the players reaches a certain amount of points, he can choose to either “go”- continue the game, giving him a chance to win more points and, subsequently, more money, or “stop” the game, making sure no one will be able to come from behind and swipe all the winnings.
I’ve been told that the variation I play is Korean, but I have on my computer a demo of a Japanese hanafuda game which seems to use the exact same rules I’m familiar with. So I don’t know if the Japanese and Korean variations are really all that different.